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Fall season at our Colorado Lodge and Resort

The summer and fall luxury dude ranch vacation season officially closed on Sunday, but we do have a group of folks coming in today for a 4 day horsemanship clinic. In the days between the close of the regular season and this clinic, we took some time to regroup, process the season and have a little fun.

Sunday night the staff hosted a VVR “Prom” in the Great room to celebrate the finish of the season. Some great outfits and hairdos were center stage of the evening.

Monday was the ever popular end of season meeting. Imagine a bunch of people who’s career objectives have been to not be in an office. Give them a summer of getting outside and playing in the backyard of a Colorado resort. Now, try to pin them down for a full day of sitting in a chair and having meetings. Challenging, yes. But this is how we get all our info about what worked, what didn’t and what changes we need to make for next summer’s dude ranch season.

The following day, many of the crew took off and played. We had two trailer loads of staff head up to the high country for a staff ride. The goal was to gather up the straggler cows that weren’t brought in the past weeks. The crew did get another small group, but there are still plenty out there to bring back home before the winter ski resort lodge season arrives.

While the crew was out playing, a posse of future wranglers showed up at the ranch. My youngest daughter’s pre-school class did a field trip to the ranch for the day. It was pretty humorous watching all these little kiddos take in the ranch setting. And it pretty well confirmed to me why our program works really well for kids 6 and up, but not so well for the younger ones. The kids were met at the Lodge by the hay wagon, with Jason and Nathan lending a hand to drive the team. We took them up to the arena where Sugar and Pinky, two of our most trustworthy “old guys” were waiting for a ride. Each kid got a turn to be led around the arena. Terry entertained the little ones by teaching them how to honk their saddle horns and laughing the whole time. After riding, they had a picnic on the patio and then headed back for nap. I was jealous at that point, thinking it might be nice to have my own personal nap time in the Great room. Ahhh, if I could be a pre-schooler all over again I would enjoy naps much more!

As we await the horsemanship clinic attendees this afternoon, there seems to be some weather rolling in. Hopefully the gorgeous weather we’ve had the past couple weeks will hold on a bit longer, but there is always the indoor arena if these clouds turn into something more serious. I hear snow is in the forecast. So, if you need winter vacation ideas, we might be ready for the ski season sooner than later!